Governments would have to keep a 10-year housing plan
Senator David Pocock, an independent senator, wants the law to make the Housing Minister write, report on and renew a 10-year housing plan. It would also set up a council for renters and buyers. And it would create an independent officer to watch over homelessness.
Official name: National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024
- The Housing Minister would have to keep a National Housing and Homelessness Plan. It would be renewed every 10 years.
- The Minister would report to Parliament on how the plan is going every three years.
- A new council of renters, buyers and people who have been homeless would give the Minister advice.
- A new independent Advocate would check progress each year and look into big housing problems.
- It comes from a senator who is not a minister. It has not been voted on.
Who it affects
- Renters, home buyers and people facing homelessness: They would get a formal voice through a new National Housing Consumer Council.
- The federal Housing Minister: They would have to write a national plan, report on it every three years and answer the Advocate's advice.
- Housing Australia: This federal housing agency would take the lead in helping the Minister with the plan.
- First Nations people and people with disability: First Nations means Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The plan would have to aim to give them more housing choices and include them in decisions.
No national housing plan
Senator David Pocock brought this bill into the Senate on 25 June 2024. The Senate is the second house of Parliament. A senator brought the bill, not the government.
His notes on the bill say Australia has never had a full national plan for housing. They say that gap has helped cause the housing problems seen since 2000. In 2008 there was a national paper on homelessness called 'The Road Home'. But there was nothing that covered housing as a whole.
The federal and state governments do sign money deals on housing. These go back to 1945. The senator says these deals pay for services. He says they are too narrow to count as a plan.
The bill copies a Canadian law from 2019 called the National Housing Strategy Act. Like Australia, Canada is a nation made up of states. It faces similar housing problems.
Housing problems it names
The notes list numbers to show the strain on housing. In 2022 to 2023, households spent 21 per cent of their take-home pay on housing on average. That was the highest on record.
Take a household in the middle of the income range. It could afford 39 per cent of homes sold in 2020 to 2021. By 2022 to 2023 that fell to 13 per cent. The poorest fifth of households could afford just 1 per cent of homes sold.
Home ownership for people aged 25 to 34 fell by six points between 2006 and 2021. Over the 25 years to 2021, there was a growing gap in rentals the poorest households could afford. The shortage grew from 48,000 homes to 255,000 homes.
Social housing means homes run by government or charities at low rent. It fell from six per cent of homes in the 1990s to four per cent. Homelessness rose 36 per cent to 122,000 people in the 15 years to 2021.
What the bill is for
The bill starts with its goals. It says a decent home is a basic human right under United Nations agreements. It says housing is key to a person's dignity and to strong communities.
It also aims to move Australia toward the right to housing in a United Nations agreement Australia has signed with other countries. It aims to move toward First Nations people having more say over their own housing. This is in line with a United Nations statement on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
A plan the Minister keeps
Part 2 makes the Housing Minister of the day write and keep a National Housing and Homelessness Plan. The plan must be fully rewritten every 10 years.
The bill sets goals for the plan. These include a decent home for everyone and ending homelessness. They include better social housing and more choice between owning and renting. They also include better quality homes, cheaper housing and more homes being built.
Other goals cover housing's role in the wider economy. People with disability should be able to live in the community with the same choices as others. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should help run housing programs that affect them.
The bill does not say which policies the plan must use. Each government picks its own. It does list groups the Minister must ask for views. Later plans must take account of feedback on earlier ones.
When the plan is carried out, community groups must be able to take part. So must people who are struggling and people who have been homeless.
Housing Australia is the federal agency that works on housing money and getting homes built. It would help the Minister write, run and review the plan. The notes say this is because there is no federal Department of Housing.
Every three years, the Minister would have to report to Parliament. The report would say what the plan has done and what programs have run. Near the end of each 10 years, Housing Australia would review the plan. It would give its report to Parliament.
Council for renters and buyers
Part 3 sets up a National Housing Consumer Council. It would speak for the people who rent, buy and live in homes.
It would have 9 to 16 members. They would include home buyers, private renters, social housing renters and people who have been homeless. Members would also come from First Nations communities, people with disability, young people and other groups who struggle to find a home.
The council would give the Minister advice on how well the plan is working and on new problems. It would make its own decisions. There is already an expert body called the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council. This new council would sit alongside it.
Members would be paid at rates set by the Remuneration Tribunal. That is the body that sets pay for people in public jobs. Members would have to say if they have personal interests that clash with their role. The Minister could sack a member for reasons such as bad behaviour or going broke.
An independent housing advocate
Part 4 creates a National Housing and Homelessness Advocate, with its own office and staff. It is based on Canada's Federal Housing Advocate.
The Advocate would report to the Minister every year on how the plan is going. The Minister would have to give that report to Parliament within 15 days that Parliament sits.
The Advocate could also look into housing problems built into the system that hurt many people. The Advocate could not handle complaints from single people.
Say many renters write in about the same problem. The Advocate could start a review. It could ask the public to send in written comments and ask government agencies for facts. If the Advocate's report gives advice, the Minister would have to answer in Parliament within six months.
The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, would pick the Advocate. Each term would be up to three years, with six years in total. The Advocate could only do other paid work if the Minister allowed it.
Smaller rules
Part 5 lets the Advocate hand some tasks to senior staff. It says money for the law must come from funds Parliament approves. It also lets the Governor-General make extra detailed rules to run the law.
Waiting in the Senate
If passed, the whole law would start on the day the Governor-General signs it.
The bill went into the Senate on 25 June 2024. On the same day, he formally asked the Senate to vote on its main idea. It was dropped when Parliament ended on 21 July 2025. Bills that have not been voted on die at the end of a Parliament. It was put back on the Senate's to-do list on 23 July 2025.
It is still before the Senate. The Senate would need to debate it and pass it. Then the House of Representatives, the lower house, would need to pass it too.
Its journey through Parliament
| 25 Jun 2024 | Senate: Introduced and read a first time |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Senate: Second reading moved |
| 21 Jul 2025 | Senate: Lapsed at end of Parliament |
| 23 Jul 2025 | Senate: Restored to Notice Paper |